Recently,
the
University
of Michigan Central Student
Government has been working
with Ann Arbor City Council
to
increase
student
political
participation in city elections,
especially following concerns on
campus about how the council’s
decisions
affect
University
students.
Efforts by CSG in 2015 resulted
in a town hall proposal to City
Council to place election reform
proposals
on
the
upcoming
November
ballot
for
voter
consideration.
The
proposed
reforms would have involved
moving city primary elections
to November, and making both
mayoral and council member
elections
nonpartisan.
The
proposal failed with the City
Council, however, by a 7-4 vote.
Public Policy senior Nadine
Jawad, CSG senior policy advisor,
is working on initiatives to
continue discussing the potential
of switching from partisan to
nonpartisan elections for City
Council, which she says will
increase enfranchisement and
give the students a greater voice in
city matters that affect their time
in Ann Arbor.
“We believe that students
should have a greater relationship
with the city, and it makes it a lot
easier for students to get involved
A
violent
attack
on
the
Ohio State University campus
last November prompted the
University of Michigan Division
of Public Safety and Security to
make safety precautions more
available for University students,
staff and community members.
The incident involved Ohio
State student Abdul Razak Ali
Artan, who drove a car into a
crowded area next to a campus
building and proceeded to attack
people with a butcher’s knife,
resulting in 11 people requiring
medical attention. While this was
not an active shooter situation,
the incident — in addition to
other recent violent incidents at
other schools around the country
— increased concern about the
potential dangers of emergency
situations at the University.
To
prepare
students
and
faculty for an active shooter on
campus, DPSS expanded their
offer for safety presentations upon
request. These presentations are
currently not mandatory for all
faculty members, but requests are
accepted year-round and can be
made by any student organization
or staff unit.
DPSS
spokeswoman
Diane
Brown
wrote
in
an
email
interview DPSS gave several
dozen
active
shooter
threat
presentations in 2016. Brown also
noted DPSS expanded its active
shooter
education
materials,
though requests for presentations
have remained fairly consistent
over the last semester.
“We have been training for
the ‘Run, Hide or Fight’ protocol
for a couple of years,” Brown
wrote. “Last semester, we added
to our materials for the training,
creating the UM video on the web
and revising the postcard that
highlights the basics. Requests for
presentations have continued to
be steady.”
DPSS encourages the “Run,
Hide, Fight” protocol, which has
been the focus of its training over
the past couple of years. This
method instructs onlookers to
use an escape path to move away
from the imminent threat, which
is taught as the first and best
option on many college campuses,
including Ohio State. The message
“Run, Hide, Fight” was sent out
to students via text during the
November attack on the Ohio
State campus.
“Run, Hide, Fight” protocol
educators advise if leaving the
scene is not possible, hiding
should be the next response,
which would involve locking
and securing doors, creating
barricades and remaining quiet,
out-of-sight and with your cell
phone on silent. As a last resort,
fighting may be necessary to
disrupt
or
incapacitate
the
shooter. If fighting is the only
available option, it’s best to be
aggressive, provide distractions
and disarm the shooter.
University
of
Michigan
community members responded
to a new policy that allows new
names
to
be
considered
for
academic buildings with praise and
opposition.
After a year of consideration and
planning, the President’s Advisory
Committee on University History
unveiled a new process to review
requests to change the names of
buildings on campus. The intent of
the policy — approved by University
President Mark Schlissel earlier
this week — is to address the
dismay associated with buildings
named after individuals who were
known to have discriminated
against minorities.
In a University press release,
Schlissel
emphasized
the
thoroughness
of
the
request
reviewing process.
“It is immensely important to
me, and to the entire university
community,
that
we
take
a
scholarly approach to any review
of historical building names and
put that review in the appropriate
context,” he stated.
Advisory
Committee
Chair
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, January 27, 2017
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 17
©2016 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CSG pushes
for election
reform in
Ann Arbor
Two University faculty members
added to conservative watchlist
See REFORM, Page 3
JEREMY MITNICK/Daily
Professor Stephen Ward browses “Marked Landscapes: From Civil War to Civil Rights” as part of the Michael Mergen Art Show at the Residential College Art
Gallery on Thursday.
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Resolution aims to increase student
participation in city political process
HEATHER COLLEY &
ISHI MORI
Daily Staff Reporters
Students and political organizations react to concerns over free speech in the classroom
LSA junior Enrique Zalamea,
the president of the University
of Michigan’s chapter of College
Republicans, has a poster up in his
room that reads, “Came to college,
still not a liberal.” He said it stems
from a joke, but the words on the
poster mean a great deal to him.
After all, it hasn’t been easy to
defend his conservative views on
campus.
“It’s playing off that joke that
college makes people more liberal,
and when you think about it, it’s
true,” Zalamea said. “It all boils
down to (how) liberalism is taught
like a fact as opposed to an opinion.”
Zalamea is not alone in thinking
some professors have a tendency to
lean toward liberal ideologies. This
became apparent in November,
when conservative advocacy group
Turning Point USA published a list
of professors on a website called
Professor Watchlist.
The mission of the website,
according to its homepage, is to
collect the names of university
faculty from across the nation
who
“discriminate
against
conservative
students
and
advance leftist propaganda in the
classroom.” Anyone can submit a
tip of a professor they feel meets this
description through a form on the
MAYA GOLDMAN
Daily Staff Reporter
See RENAMING, Page 3
‘U’ reacts
to building
renaming
procedure
ADMINISTRATION
Community questions
namesakes’ historical
legacies versus inclusion
JENNIFER MEER
Daily Staff Reporter
DESIGN BY NOAH SHERBIN
Source: Everytown Research
DPSS increases active shooter training
as school shooting incidents spike
Campus police update educational program to include Run, Hide, Fight protocol
ALEXIS RANKIN
Daily Staff Reporter
Total domination
The Wolverines put on
a show full of offensive
fireworks in an impressive
90-60 win over Indiana.
» Page 8
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See TRAINING, Page 3
See WATCHLIST, Page 3
On Jan. 24, after a year-long
search for new leadership, the
University of Michigan’s University
Musical
Society
announced
Matthew
VanBesien,
current
executive director of the New York
Philharmonic, will serve as its
seventh president. VanBesien will
assume the position, currently held
by Kenneth Fischer, in July.
After 30 years as president,
Fischer kept his distance from the
search committee, focusing on his
last season with UMS. The 2016-
2017 UMS performers include the
Berlin
Philharmonic,
Batsheva
Dance Company, Meredith Monk
and Yo-Yo Ma.
Fischer has been the president
of UMS since 1987. Since then, the
organization quadrupled its budget,
established stronger engagement
between the University and the
local community, and became the
only University arts presenter to
receive the National Medal of Arts
from former President Barack
Obama.
“In a University that honors and
is committed to diversity by all
the things that measure diversity
See UMS, Page 3
UMS hires
notable NY
orchestra
director
CAMPUS LIFE
Director of the New York
Philharmonic set to be
new president of UMS
YOSHIKO IWAI
Daily Staff Reporter
VISUALIZING HISTORY